


Birds Of A Feather

by anemic_cinema



Series: World's End Boyfriend [3]
Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-15
Updated: 2013-09-15
Packaged: 2017-12-26 17:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/968436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anemic_cinema/pseuds/anemic_cinema
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: No queers after the zombie apocalypse? I don't think so. Glenn finds out he's not the only queer in camp. TW: use of a racial slur.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birds Of A Feather

It wasn't so much the question, but the cavalier way that Amy had posed it. She had climbed up Dale's RV while Glenn was on watch, sat down next to him and asked:

“So, Glenn, are you gay? I've got a bet with Andrea. She says you are, and I say you're not.”

Glenn choked on the water he'd been sipping on. 

“Amy! what the hell?”

The young woman laughed at his reaction. 

“Calm down, dude. Andrea says she can spot a fellow queer a mile away, and I say she's full of it.”

Glenn stared down at the blonde, the cogs in his head whirring.

“Wait, wait, wait, Andrea said 'fellow queer?' As in she's-”

“Yep! Or as she likes to say it, 'gay as a day in may!'”

Glenn sprawled out in the tiny deck chair, his hands covering his face. On one hand, it was nice to know he wasn't the only gay person in the group, on the other, this was seriously awkward.

“So, are you or not?”

Glenn's hands fell back down to his sides. He was looking at Amy with a confused look on his face. Why was it that no matter where he went, he ended up being around people of the same sexual persuasion as him (or some variation thereof)? It was like he was a queer magnet!

“Ok, uh, yeah I am. Gay, that is. Uh, this is kinda weird, but I'm glad I'm not the only one in the camp who is!”

“Oh my god, you have no idea. Dale is too! Well, bisexual anyway.”

Now that was a surprise. He and Dale had become close very quickly, and he had told Glenn about his family, about his wife who passed away from cancer...why the hell hadn't he told him he was bi? Maybe he didn't want Glenn to think he was flirting with him? Again, weird. Then again, considering the circumstances of all of them being thrown together, weird was relative. 

Amy stood up. “Alright, I'm gonna go report back to Andrea. After you're done on watch come hang out with us. We're gonna play cards and Dale said he had some iced tea he was willing to share with us.” With that cheery announcement, she clambered down to the ground, and ran off towards Andrea's tent. 'Well,' Glenn thought, 'At least I'm amongst friends.'

*******

“Glenn, you got any threes?”

They were on their third round of Go Fish, and so far Dale was wiping the floor with them. Glenn groaned and handed over two cards. Dale had the advantage in this game because he knew how to play it. Andrea shook her head, laughing at Glenn's pain.

“Ok, that does it, after this we're playing poker.” 

Dale scoffed. “Hell no, last time I played with you you won my last jar of peanut butter.”

“I told you she was a cardshark!” Amy exclaimed, laughing at the memory of that particular game. The mood around the table was so light, Glenn almost forgot that at any moment they could be attacked by walkers. They each had a glass of lukewarm iced tea, and Glenn had dug out a bag of pretzels from his secret stash. They had been chatting and playing for almost an hour, and Glenn felt right at home. It was nice to be around people you could relax around. When Amy asked about his stint in college, he didn't have to leave out the asshole boyfriend who had cheated on him with his roommate. He didn't have to omit how, when he was a freshman, he went to a gay bar for the first time and got so falling down drunk a drag queen drove him home because she was worried about him. He didn't have to be careful to change the pronouns of the people he had dated to protect himself. Not having to do all of those verbal back-flips was a huge relief.

“So Glenn,” Dale said, as he went through the cards in his hand, “I'd like you to know that I had words with these two about their little stunt this afternoon.”

Amy and Andrea made exasperated noises.

“Jeez Dale, it was just a bit of fun!”

“Yeah, besides, I wouldn't have even thought of doing it unless Glenn had pinged my gaydar.”

Dale shook his head. “You two just don't get it. It's dangerous out there, even moreso than it used to be for folks like us. There's people out there that wouldn't hesitate hurting y'all for being who you are.”

“We know how to defend ourselves Dale,” Andrea scoffed, turning serious all of a sudden, “And besides, the people out there that really wanted to hurt us wouldn't have been stopped by the law before all of this happened. Remember, I used to deal with this shit all the time.”

Andrea had been a civil rights lawyer before all hell broke loose, and was pretty savvy when it came to reading the intentions of others. She knew how to watch out for trouble, but she knew that sometimes trouble finds you no matter what. She only hoped it wouldn't find her or her sister, and that if it did she could protect her. 

Glenn coughed, “Hey, Dale, it's ok. I'm kinda glad they did, 'cause otherwise I wouldn't have known we were...yaknow.”

“Birds of a feather,” Amy said.

“Yeah!” Glenn grinned at the rest of the group seated around the table. “Hey, can I tell you guys something?”

“Shoot kid, by the way, you got any fives?” Dale said, again staring at his cards.

“Go fish. Ok, this is really weird. You know how Daryl came back to the camp all bloody and stuff yesterday?” 

Andrea made a sound that made it clear she did not think highly of anyone with the last name Dixon. “Yeah, what about it?”

“Well he came to the shower area right, and he busts in while I'm washing up, and starts yelling at me to get out, and I was so freaked out I knocked over my shampoo, whatever, and-”

Dale looked up, a puzzled look on his face “He interrupted your shower?”

“Yeah! Anyway he called me a chinaman, and I told him where he could go stick it, basically.”

“Alright Glenn!” Andrea high-fived him across the table. “He needs to learn that being a racist dickbag ain't gonna get him far.”

“Now this is where it gets really strange. I was so pissed off I forgot my baseball cap, right? I went back when I realized I'd forgotten it, but it was gone. I couldn't find it anywhere. Then, this morning when I come out of my tent, it's sitting there, and there's a big ass bottle of shampoo along with it.”

The three others stared at him, confused looks on their faces. Dale was the first to pipe up.

“Did you tell anyone else about what happened at the shower?”

“No! I was too busy with chores around camp and besides, it didn't seem like the kind of story you share. It was embarrassing as hell.” 

“You sure?”

“Yeah! You know what I think?”

Andrea answered. “Daryl found your cap and brought it back to you, along with the shampoo to apologize for being a bastard.”

“Uh...yeah. What you said. I dunno man, maybe he's not so bad. When he's not around his brother he might be a halfway decent guy.”

“I wouldn't go that far,” said Dale. “but it is indicative of a nicer side of his personality.”

Andrea snorted. “I'll believe that when I see it. The way he follows his brother's example speaks plenty.”

Glenn hesitated for a second before speaking again. “There's something else too...I can't prove it...You know that fight Merle and T-Dog had over that belt buckle? I think Daryl stole it and got rid of it.”

Andrea looked at him with disbelief. “Now that is un-fucking-believable. Glenn, there's no way that Daryl would do something like that.”

“I swear to god, I saw him that night walking back up from the quarry. I'm telling ya, he must've thrown it in the water or something.”

“Glenn, please don't take this personal, but do you think you might have a ulterior motive for believing that?”

“What d'you mean?”

Andrea sighed and looked at Dale for help. He just shook his head as if to say 'you started it.'

“Like...you know...maybe you have a thing for him and you wanna believe he's not a bad person?”

Glenn's mouth dropped open. That was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. 

“That's bullshit! I definitely do NOT have the hots for him. First of all, he never wears shirts with sleeves, what the hell's up with that? And he's got tiny squinty eyes! And he's a racist douchebag!”

“You just got through telling us he might not be that bad!” Amy interjected. 

“Yeah, but that don't mean I wanna get in his pants, Jesus!” Glenn threw his cards down. “I mean, just the fact that you'd suggest that...what kind of guy do you think I am? I'm not into that kind of punishment, thanks but no thanks.”

“Glenn, chill, what I meant was-”

“That I enjoy being treated like shit?”

Dale broke into the conversation. “Both of you, calm down. Glenn, I'm with you on this one. Maybe he's not a total ass, but still, be careful. I trust him and his brother about as far as I can throw 'em.”

Glenn was not feeling at all supported by Dale's statement.

“I'm not trying to defend the guy, I just wanted to...I don't know.”

“Share what happened to you?” Amy answered.

“Exactly! Y'all are the ones reading into it.”

“Fair enough,” Andrea assented, “Look I didn't mean to get you revved up. It's just that I've run into douchebags like those two before. Merle's the worst. God, what a creepy fuck. I caught him staring at Amy's ass the other day, and I told him that if he touched a hair on her head I'd cut his balls off and shove them down his throat.”

Glenn's eyes widened. “Holy shit. Remind me never to piss you off.”

“No kidding.” Dale winced.

“What I'm trying to say is that I worry about you, Glenn. You're the nicest guy in camp, and if anyone tried to hurt you I'd have to kill them with a shovel.”

Amy smacked her sister in the shoulder. “Dammit Andrea, didn't you give my last boyfriend this speech, but you we're telling him you'd kill him with a shovel if he hurt me? Where is this shovel anyway?” 

Andrea grinned deviously. “A woman is entitled to her secrets.”

The argument having been smoothed over, they finished the game and decided to call it a night. Glenn offered to help Dale wash the glasses, but Dale wouldn't hear it. So he sat at the table of the RV, making small talk, until he couldn't help but ask the question that had been running through his mind all day.

“Dale...how come you never told me you're uh...”

The older man stopped scrubbing out the glass he had in his hand, and got a bemused expression on his face.

“Kid, do you go around telling people you've just met exactly what your sexuality is?”

Glenn felt embarrassed. It was such an obvious answer. “You've got me there.”

Dale finished rinsing out the glass, and put it on the rack next to the tiny sink to dry. “I'm afraid I don't have Andrea's ability to recognize people who are like me. It's not something I've ever really shared with anyone.”

“Not even your...”

Dale's face betrayed a moment of pain at the memory of his wife. “No. I spent most of my life trying to deny it. Pretty stupid in retrospect. You can't change who you are after all. It's a funny thing how the end of the world as you know it puts things in perspective. I don't feel like hiding who I am anymore, hence why I told Andrea and Amy.”

Glenn nodded. “Well...I'm glad you're uh more comfortable with yourself now.”

“I wouldn't call it exactly comfortable yet. But it's a start. It sure beats denial.”

The younger man smiled. “You can say that again.”

With that, Glenn excused himself. Ambling back to his tent, he couldn't help thinking about what Andrea had said about Daryl. He most certainly did not have a “thing” for the redneck.

At least, he was pretty sure he didn't.

**Author's Note:**

> The comment about Daryl's lack of sleeves is a nod to ornategrip's amazing story "The Diary Of Glenn."


End file.
